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xTool Studio for Beginners: From a Blank Screen to Your First Engraving

New to xTool Studio, or moving over from xTool Creative Space? Here's where everything is and how to go from a new project to a finished engraving, step by step.

By Chris · 08 November 2026

If you've just opened xTool Studio and thought "where is everything?", this is for you. The old functions from xTool Creative Space are all still there, they've just moved. This guide takes you from a blank screen to a finished engraving, step by step, so you can get back to making things.

It isn't a full tour of every feature. It's the basics: where things live, how to bring in an image or a design, how to set it up and how to send it to the laser. I filmed it on my F1 Ultra, but the layout is the same whatever xTool machine you're using.

Jump to: What's changed since · Starting a project · Device and material · The left toolbar · Importing an image · Editing an image · Laser settings · Text and layers · Shapes and the pen tool · Framing · Processing

Before you start: a few things have moved

I made this video in September 2025, and xTool Studio has had several updates since. Everything below still works the same way, but a few things look different now:

The Home screen now has Atomm AI and Atomm Discover down the left, plus a Material setting page where you can manage your own saved settings.
The Applications list on the left (material test array, grid array, Smart nesting and so on) now sits under Useful tools and generators.
The material library has a Community tab with settings other people have shared.
There are new tools like Batch resize, Switch origin and Auto fill.

I've gone through all of the new features in my xTool Studio update guide, so read that next once you've got the basics below.

1. Starting a new project

When you open Studio you land on the Home screen. It's quite a busy screen, but you only need one button to get going: New Project in the top right. The plus symbol at the top left does the same thing.

Studio will either connect to your machine automatically or open a blank workspace. A really nice touch is that you can pick any xTool machine from the device list, even one you don't own yet. If you've just ordered a P3, for example, you can select it and plan your project with its camera and bed size, ready for when it arrives.

2. Device, mode, material and focus

Everything to do with the machine is now on the right-hand side.

Connection: next to your machine's name there's a status dot. Green means you're connected. If it isn't green, the button next to it takes you to the connection settings.
Device settings: click your machine to see its basic info and Wi-Fi, then Device settings. This is where you change the fill light brightness, the exhaust time after processing and the flame alarm.
Mode: the processing mode (flat surface, roller, chuck, extension, screen printing, embossing) is now on the right too. It used to be along the top and I found it blended in, so I much prefer it here.

The material library is in the same area. Click it, pick a category on the left or use the search box. I typed "anod" and found the deep blue anodized aluminum blank I was using. I like the new Precautions section, which gives you tips such as cleaning the material after processing. Click Apply and the material is set.

Next, focus the laser. You can type the material thickness in yourself or click the autofocus button next to it. If your machine has a camera, the button next to that refreshes the background so you can see your item on screen.

Now over to the left side of the screen. From the top:

The green xTool icon opens the old File, Edit, Arrange, Object and Text menus. It shows a lot of the shortcuts that are now scattered around the workspace in text form.
Save, and the option to upload to My Space, which is cloud storage for your projects and assets. My computer died the day before I filmed this and I lost all my material settings. If they'd been in the cloud, I wouldn't have.
Import for photos and files.
Text and the vector shape tools.
Templates, which is new. I'll leave that for another day.
Elements, the library of vector shapes, which now has a search bar.
Applications: the material test array, grid array, circular array, code generator for QR codes and Smart nesting. Some of the newer tools here use credits. (This list is now called Useful tools and generators.)
AI Make, the xTool AI image generator, and finally My Space at the bottom.

4. Importing and positioning an image

Click Import and choose your photo.
If the image is bigger than the workspace, Studio asks if you want to scale it down. I picked Yes, scale to fit. Keep original size brings it in full size.
A bar appears along the top with X and Y for position and width and height in millimeters for size.
Leave the lock aspect ratio button on so the image doesn't stretch. Turn it off only when you actually want to distort something.
To rotate, drag the little circle handle. Hold Shift while you do it and it snaps round in even steps. You can also type an angle in and press Enter.

The arrange tools are tucked away in dropdowns in the top bar. Hover over the align arrow and you'll find Align center, horizontal and vertical centering, align top and so on. That's the one I use most for lining things up. Next to it is Reflect (flip horizontally or vertically), and then Offset, which is more useful for vectors than photos. I'd love to be able to right-click and align center, but for now this is where it lives.

5. Editing an image

Select your image and click Edit in the top bar. A panel of tools opens on the left. I'll be honest, the icons aren't obvious the first time you see them, so here's what's what.

Crop is the top left icon (a picture of a dog, funnily enough). It opens the crop window you'll recognize from before. Drag the box, then Save.
AI cutout removes the background automatically, and Magic eraser removes things you paint over. Both use credits. I don't use them myself. I use a free online background remover instead (just search "background remover") and save my credits.
Filters like grid, sketch and comic are still there, plus a restyle option.

The important one is Adjustments. This is where the old top-bar settings went: Grayscale (new), sharpness, saturation, brightness, contrast, temperature, tint and Invert. I always make photos black and white before I engrave them. It just makes life easier.

The best new button is Auto Adjust. I was engraving onto deep blue anodized aluminum, and on a dark surface the image needs inverting because the engraved areas come out light. Auto Adjust did that for me automatically, so the photo was ready to engrave straight away.

6. Laser settings, and saving your own

With the image selected, the settings are on the right. Because we already picked a material, the dropdown at the top offers xTool's reference settings for it, for example Blue light reference (the diode) or Fiber IR reference (the fiber laser, which is great on metal). These are xTool's recommended starting points. They're not always perfect, but they're a good place to start.

For an image you'll see:

Dot duration, the equivalent of speed for images: how long the laser spends on each dot.
Power and DPI.
Bitmap mode, which is Jarvis by default. These are different ways of turning a photo into dots, so have a look through them.
Engraving mode, uni-directional or bi-directional (plus frequency when you use the fiber laser).

Once you've tweaked the settings, hover over the little save icon next to the dropdown, give them a name and click Submit. Your own settings then appear in that dropdown. Do this. The suggested settings are good, but they're never quite where you want them, so you'll always end up refining and saving your own. If you'd like a head start, my free Laser Settings Library has the settings I've tested on xTool machines.

There's also a Preview button at the bottom right. It shows a simulation of how the engraving should look, and you can spin it around (hold the right mouse button to move it). It's for reference only, but I like it because it gives you an idea of where you stand before you burn anything.

7. Text, fonts and layers

Click the Text tool, then click anywhere on the workspace. The word "Hello" appears.
Type whatever you want.
On the right, pick how it's processed: Score traces the outline (like drawing round it with a pen), Engrave fills it in, and Cut cuts it out of the material.

To change the font, click the font name in the top bar and the font list opens on the left, with a search box and a filter. You still get a sample of each one. Some are marked limited free, so it looks like a few fonts may be paid in future. I also couldn't find every font from xTool Creative Space, so if you had a favorite, check it's still there.

In the top bar you'll also find bold and italic, the size, left and right align, uppercase or lowercase, and a button simply called More. That one lets you change the letter spacing and the line spacing. Handy if you didn't know it was there.

Layers: right-click an item and you'll see the layer colors at the bottom of the menu. I put my text on red so I could see it against the blue. Each layer then gets a colored button at the bottom left, and clicking one selects everything on that layer, so you can change all their settings at once. I've got a full video on layers (or read the written guide) if you want more.

One-click set

For text and vectors you'll see speed instead of dot duration. Under the reference dropdown there's One-click set. Click it and you get an interactive test grid of power against speed for your material. It's clearer on wood, so I switched to birch plywood to show you: each square is a different shade. Want a dark engrave? Click a dark square. Want it lighter? Click a lighter one. Your settings update to match.

I tried it on the anodized blank too: I picked a light square and then a brighter one, and the Preview changed to match each time. It's a great place to start, but I still recommend running your own material test.

8. Shapes, the pen tool and elements

The vector shape tools are all in one place on the left:

Line: click and drag. Hold Shift for straight lines and set angles.
Rectangle: drag any size, or hold Shift to keep it square.
Circle, polygon and a new star work the same way.

The one I'd really point you to is the pen tool (it looks like a pen). Zoom in and click your way around whatever you want to outline, making lots of little lines. Set it to engrave and you've got a custom shape that only engraves that exact area. It's a really good way of getting precise, controlled vectors. My vector drawing video (or read the written guide) goes into this properly.

The Elements library is full of ready-made vector shapes. I dropped in a turtle and then a deer. The Offset tool in the top bar (inner or outer) is handy here too, for example when you want to flip a design around for a dark surface.

To zoom the workspace, use the plus and minus at the bottom right, or hold Ctrl and roll the mouse wheel.

9. Framing

Even if your machine has a camera, I always recommend framing before you engrave. Framing is when the laser draws the outline of your job on the bed with a low-power light, so you can check it's exactly where you want it.

Click the little hatched box icon at the bottom right. When it's blue, framing is on. Click it again to turn it off.
Click the arrow next to it for Framing settings.
Choose Rect for a box around the whole design, or Outline to trace the actual shape. Outline may not work on very complex designs.
If you can't see the frame on your material, turn the Light power up. On my blue blank I put it up to 10. Studio warns you that the material may get marked if it's too high, so test that on something that doesn't matter first.

I've got a separate video on framing (or read the written guide) as well.

10. Processing and starting the job

Before you hit Process, click the small arrow next to it for the Processing settings:

Evade smoke: some woods throw up a lot of smoke, which can affect the laser. This tells it to follow a path that moves away from the smoke.
Processing path: Auto planning lets Studio work out the route. Switch to User defining and you can choose to engrave one item at a time or all together, and in which direction (top to bottom, for example). In my test, changing this took the job from 19 seconds to 14. On something more complex, like lots of text, it can save a lot more.

Click Process. The Check before processing screen opens.
Use View path preview and press play to watch exactly how it will engrave. The estimated time is at the top right.
When you're happy, click Start. You'll hear a beep.
Press the button on your machine to begin.

That's it, from a blank screen to an engraving.